SKETCHES 




Copyiiglit]^". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SKETCHES 



BY 

NANNIE H. SAVAGE 



THE PLIMPTON PRESS 

NORWOOD, MASS. 

1920 



■SZ6 



COPYRIGHT, 1920 
Y NANNIE H. SAVAGE 



All rights reserved 



Mi ^3 (iJ20 



©CU570207 



TO MY CHILDREN 

MOTHEB 



PREFACE 

Within these writings are gleanings from, 
" The Arkansas Gazette " ; " History of Ar- 
kansas,*' Hempstead ; '* History of Arkansas," 
Bourne and Benton; "Library of American 
Literature," Steadman and Hutchison; "Memo- 
randum from Library of Congress"; and other 
sources. 

I gathered along the way — these pearls and 
have strung them lovingly. May they throw 
out to those passing within their pure rays 
their fulness of beauty. 

Nannie H. Savage. 

MoNTicELLO, Arkansas, 
July 4, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

Arkansas — A Picture 1 

Old Trails and Roads 47 

My Visit to Washington City .... 59 



ARKANSAS — A PICTURE 

Colonial Period 

TOURING ages of the past the area of what 
^""^ is now Arkansas lay smiling in the golden 
sunshine of day or dreaming in the silvery 
softness of moonlight. In this witchery wild- 
flowers blended fragrance with the southern 
winds ; graceful fawns gamboled about their 
dams; the mocking-bird sprinkled his royal 
notes from very joy; and wealth — lay sleep- 
ing in the arms of nature. 

That a superior prehistoric race — the 
Mound Builders — lived here, we have evidence 
from mounds in the State containing artistic 
handicraft — pottery, ornaments and imple- 
ments of war. In Lonoke County are mounds, 
some of which reach the height of seventy- 
five feet, whose flat tops and encircling em- 
bankments — ten feet in height — prove how 
purposely they were builded. 

In this realm were found Indians who fished, 
1 



2 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

hunted and attended to the business of their 
wars. Their skillfully chipped arrowheads of 
various-colored flints are scattered over the 
surface of the State. 

Since civilized man must ever go west, Euro- 
pean explorers at different times and points 
touched the shores of the New World. One 
of these, a Spanish nobleman, Hernando De 
Soto, seeking gold and the famed fountain of 
youth, trailed up from Florida, then westward, 
discovered the Mississippi river, which he 
crossed, probably, at a point above the mouth 
of White river, near Helena, and landed 
"right over against the camp" on June 18, 
1541. 

Of the Mississippi the writer of the party, 
"A Gentleman of Elvas," records: "The river 
is almost half a league broad. If a man stood 
on the other side it could not be discerned 
whether he was a man or no. The river was 
of great depth and had a strong current. . . . 
There was great store of fish in it." 

It is conceded that De Soto with his party 
reached the Hot Springs, since the above 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 6 

writer mentions "a lake of very hot water, and 
somewhat brackish." He also notes of salt on 
the Ouachita banks : "They make it along the 
river, which when it ebbeth, leaveth it upon the 
upper part of the sand." 

In 1673 — one hundred and thirty-two years 
later — a French Jesuit priest. Father Mar- 
quette, wishing to find into what water the 
Mississippi emptied, with a Frenchman, Joliet, 
floated from the upper Mississippi, which they 
had discovered, to the mouth of the White river, 
thence up the waters of the Arkansas river to 
the point where, later, was established Arkansas 
Post. This gentle Father brought to these In- 
dians the message of the Cross, and so im- 
pressed were they, that ever afterwards they 
welcomed the Frenchmen. 

In 1682, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, 
with Henry de Tonti, his faithful lieutenant, 
Father Membre and twenty Frenchmen and 
Canadians, explored the Mississippi to its 
mouth, and on the 9th of April formally claimed 
this vast extent for France, and named it Louis- 
iana in honor of his king, Louis XIV. While 



« ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

on the return to Illinois, he granted De Tonti a 
large tract of land along the Arkansas river. 
La Salle, leaving De Tonti in command, pro- 
ceeded to France to arrange for the settlement 
of this new country. 

How sunny seemed the future! 

In July, 1686, as "commandant of Louis- 
iana," he sailed with colonists for a settlement 
at the mouth of the Mississippi and for trading 
stations along its length, but he was destined 
never to exercise his official power nor again to 
see this beautiful possession he had given 
France. 

De Tonti, having heard that La Salle was 
returning, descended the Mississippi to its 
mouth to meet his beloved chieftain. After 
searching the coast for him in vain, De Tonti, 
on his way back to Illinois, sent ten from his 
party to build a fort on the land that La Salle 
had given him. 

Thus, in 1686 — ninety years before the 
Declaration of Independence was written and 
eighty-three years before Daniel Boone boldl}'^ 
trailed into the wilds of Kentucky -7- was estab- 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 5 

lished Arkansas Post : the first white settlement 
within the present bounds of Arkansas and the 
first within the vast extent of Louisiana. 

Of this Post, built near the Indian town, Ot- 
so-cho-ne, De Tonti said: "My French com- 
panions — De Tonti was Italian — delighted 
with the beauty of the climate, asked my per- 
mission to settle there. . . . This little colony 
has since been so much increased and multiplied 
that it has become a resting place for the 
Frenchmen who travel in that direction." 

A tourist's highway may, later, lead to this 
unique gem where shall be — De Tonti Park, 
with great gray boulders, from our moun- 
tains, portraying: The coming of Father Mar- 
quette ; the deeds of De Tonti ; the organiza- 
tion of the Territory here by Robert Critten- 
den; the establishment of The Arkansas Ga- 
zette; the arrival of Governor Miller, and 
General T. J. Churchill's heroic defense of this 
point during the Civil War. 

After La Salle's murder on the bank of 
Trinity river, Texas, the remnant of his party, 
consisting of seven, Father Anastasius among 



6 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

them, led by friendly Indians, finally reached 
the Arkansas river opposite the fort, in July 
1687, and looking to the other side "saw a 
great cross and, near it, a house built after 
the French fashion." Shots were fired by two 
welcoming Frenchmen — the Indian chief of 
this village had fired before — who "were 
pleased to see such persons as might bring 
them news of that commander from whom they 
expected the performance of what he had 
promised them; but the account given them 
of M. de La Salle's unfortunate death was so 
affecting that it drew tears from them, and 
the dismal history of his troubles and disas- 
ters rendered them almost inconsolable." 

How clearly we see them ! 

France, after the Seven Years War with 
England, to prevent England's wresting Louis- 
iana from her, secretly conveyed this posses- 
sion to her ally, Spain, by the Treaty of Paris 
in 1763. Later, the following letter from the 
king, bearing date April 21, 1764, was re- 
ceived at New Orleans by M. d'Abadie, gov- 
ernor of Louisiana: 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 7 

"I address this letter to inform you that my 
intention is that on the receipt of this letter 
and the copies annexed, whether it reaches 
you through the officers of his Spanish Majesty, 
or directly by the French vessels charged with 
its delivery, you will resign into the hands of 
the Governor therefor, appointed by the King 
of Spain, the said country and colony and its 
dependencies, with the City and Island of New 
Orleans, in such state as they may be at the 
date of such cession, wishing that in future they 
belong to his Catholic Majesty, and adminis- 
tered by his governors and officers as belong to 
him, in full right and without exception." 

This order broke d'Abadie's heart! M. 
Aubry, his successor, performed the duties of 
transfer, and our present Arkansas became 
Spanish estate. 

Spain, during thirty-seven years of posses- 
sion, made heroic attempts to advance this wil- 
derness. One of her governors. Baron de 
Carondelet, conferred princely grants of land: 
June 11, 1793, " to Captain Don Joseph Val- 
liere in the District of Arkansas, a tract of 



8 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

land situated on the White river, extending 
from the rivers Norte Grande and Cibolos, to 
the source of the said White river, ten leagues 
in depth" ; 1795, to Don Carlos de Villemont 
"two leagues of land front, by one league in 
depth lying on the right descending bank of 
the Mississippi at a place called the Island del 
Chicot, distant twenty-five leagues below the 
mouth of the Arkansas river"; June 20, 1797, 
to Baron de Bastrop "twelve leagues square or 
more than one million arpens" — one arpen is 
"about eighty-five hundredths of an acre" — 
"of land which lay eighty leagues above the 
mouth of the Ouachita adjoining on the part of 
the southwest the eastern shore of" that "river 
and Bayous Ouachita, Bartholmew and Siard." 
Only the small northern portion of this latter 
grant extended into Chicot County, Arkansas. 
De Bastrop ceded four hundred thousand acres 
from his land to Aaron Burr, and it was here 
along the Ouachita river that the latter pro- 
posed establishing a colony as the central point 
for his future movements. Baron de Carondelet, 
on June 27, 1797, further granted lands "a 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 9 

million of arpens" to the Winter families and 
other families "to form a settlement in the post 
of Arkansas for the cultivation of flax, wheat 
and hemp." 

No possession of note had been taken of 
these above wilderness lands amidst hostile In- 
dians, so their grants, later, became invalid. 
Other Spanish grants, having been perfected, 
were approved by the United States, their titles 
continuing in force at the present time. 

In 1800, through the Treaty of St. Ilde- 
fonso, Louisiana was secretly transferred again 
to France. 

During the government of Louisiana by 
Spain, there had been trouble about the use of 
the Mississippi. In 1788, John Jay wrote: 
"Spain thinks it convenient to shut the Missis- 
sippi against us on one side, and Britain ex- 
cludes us from the Saint Lawrence on the other ; 
nor will either of them permit the other waters 
which are between them and us to become the 
means of mutual intercourse and traffic." On 
April 18, 1802, President Jefferson, who had 
become aware of this late transaction, wrote to 



10 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

the United States Minister at Paris, Robert R. 
Livingston: "There is on the globe one single 
spot the possessor of which is our natural and 
habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through 
which the produce of three-eighths of our ter- 
ritory must pass to market." On Oct. 16, 
1802, the Spanish intendant, Don Morales, 
closed the port at New Orleans from the United 
States, giving no other in its stead. 

How serious the crisis ! 

President Jefferson at once instructed Mr. 
Livingston to treat with France for New Or- 
leans, and sent James Monroe, special envoy 
to assist him ; but — Napoleon had planned a 
kingdom west of the beautiful Mississippi with 
New Orleans as the seat of government. The 
fleet, with troops and colonists, was ready to 
sail when. Napoleon having received dispatches 
that England was preparing for war, and fear- 
ing her prowess in the Gulf, said to his secre- 
tary, Marbois: "I renounce Louisiana. It is 
not only New Orleans I wish to cede, but the 
entire colony without reserve. . . . Open the 
subject this very day to Mr. Livingston." 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 11 

Thus was achieved the greatest coup d'etat 
of our national life and the cession of the great- 
est territory in history. 

Of Louisiana, Napoleon said : "I am well ac- 
quainted with the value of what I abandon 
. . . with lively regret." Of the French in 
Louisiana : "May they cherish for us . . . sen- 
timents of affection." 

He must have felt these words ! 

Mr. Jefferson now suggested to Congress 
that "laws be enacted for the occupation and 
government of the acquired territory," and 
hastened for the official transfer. 

On December 20, 1803, at New Orleans, and 
March 10, 1804, at St. Louis, as the Tri-colors 
of France was lowered the Stars and Stripes 
was raised to float in sovereignty over this fair 
extent, Louisiana. 

The regime of the French in Arkansas is 
impressed by their beautiful names : Ouachita, 
Fourche la Fave, Poteau, Petit Jean, Des Arc, 
Maumelle. 



12 arkansas a picture 

Ante-Territorial Period 

The United States in March 1804 divided 
Louisiana into the Territory of Orleans with 
New Orleans as capital, and the Territory of 
Louisiana with seat of government at St. Louis. 
The former division was admitted into the 
Union in 1812 as the State of Louisiana, when 
the latter division was organized into the Ter- 
ritory of Missouri, of which Arkansas formed 
one or more counties until 1819. 

As early as June 1804 Major James B. 
Maney was stationed at Arkansas Post, having 
received it direct from the Spanish officer, Don 
Carlos de Villemont, as commandant. This 
stable government attracted into Arkansas 
Anglo-Saxons from east of the Mississippi 
river. After the War of 1812, many who had 
served as soldiers came to claim allotments 
given them by the government, and lands began 
to attain value. 

The State and her greatest river were named 
for Indians that lived on the Mississippi river 
near the mouth of the Arkansas and in towns 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 13 

along the lower borders of the latter river. 
They had once lived in the Ohio valley, whence 
they were driven out by more powerful tribes, 
who, in 1700, spoke of the Ohio as the river of 
the Akansa. Father Marquette first notes the 
name "Akansea," as he heard it. Other 
Frenchmen, later, wrote it Arkancas, Arkansas, 
Arkansea, Accanceas and Akansa. 

The Arkansas river formed the dividing- 
line between the Osage Indians on the north 
and the Quapaws on the south. 

The United States secured title to their lands 
in the following manner : Governor Meriwether 
Lewis, through Pierre Chouteau, made the first 
treaty with them November 10, 1808. This 
treaty was with the Osages and was confirmed 
by one hundred and ten chiefs of the "Big and 
Little Osages" and agreed to later, August 31, 
1809, by fifteen "chiefs and warriors ... re- 
siding on the river Arkansas, being a part of 
the Great Osage nation." Among these "chiefs 
and warriors," were "Handsome Hair," "Fine 
Day" and "Builder of Towns." This treaty 
transferred a vast tract of land, of which 



14 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

14,830,432 acres were in the bounds of the 
future State of Arkansas. On September 25, 
1818, forty-five of the "Great and Little Osage 
nation" ceded 7,392,000 acres — which had 
been reserved from the former treaty — lying 
"in Arkansas and west thereof" through Gov- 
ernor William Clark, and later, June 2, 1825, 
Governor Clark arranged further transfer 
from the Osages of "all lands lying within" the 
"territory of Arkansas." A negotiation was 
had, August 24, 1818, between Governor Clark 
and Auguste Chouteau, and the Quapaw chiefs 
— among them, "Eagle's Bill," "Dry Man," 
"Buck Wheat," "The Tame Buffalo" and "Ap- 
proaching Summer." This granted all land 
south of the Arkansas river, save 1,500,000 
acres, whose western border extended to "the 
Little Rock," which the Quapaws agreed never 
to sell without consent of the United States. 
This reservation, the last Indian possession in 
Arkansas Territory, was ceded on November 
15, 1824, in a treaty perfected by Robert Crit- 
tenden with "Dry Man," the last Quapaw chief 
of full blood, and Saracen, a half Quapaw. 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 15 

This aged chief, Saracen, who attained the 
age of ninety years, moved away with his tribe ; 
but loving best "the land of my fathers," re- 
turned, with Governor Pope's kindest permis- 
sion, to the reservation, "eighty acres of land 
to be laid off so as to include his improvements, 
where he now resides opposite Vaugine's" that 
had been given him in the treaty of 1824. He 
was esteemed for his nobility of character, and 
a window in the Roman Catholic church of 
Pine Bluff commemorates his life. 

"THE INDIANS ARE COMING!!! 

"We stop the press to announce the arrival, 
last evening, of Capt. Clark and Lieut. Ryan, 
of the U. S. Army from mouth of White river. 
They bring us the interesting news, that up- 
wards of 500 of Fulsom's party of the Emi- 
grating Choctaws arrived at the Post of Ar- 
kansas on Saturday last, on board the steam- 
boat 'Reindeer,' and they presume there are 
by this time over 3,000 Choctaws at that place. 
They may be looked for here in a few days." 

The above "from the files of The Gazette, of 
November 30, 1831," shows the emigration of 



16 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

the Choctaws from Mississippi, across to their 
new home, "in the Red river section of the 
Choctaw country." 

A second nation of emigrating Indians were 
the Cherokees. A few of them drifted across 
the Mississippi river from the Mussel Shoals 
and Chattanooga regions into the St. Francis 
river country, as early as 1790. Other Chero- 
kees moved over and settled in what is now 
Crawford County prior to 1810. By a treaty 
July 8, 1817, between the United States and 
the Cherokees, east of the Mississippi and along 
the Arkansas river, this entire nation was set- 
tled in the Indian Territory. 

The Cherokees were superior Indians: Dik- 
keh, the Just, is here pictured by the pen of 
"Mr. Washburn": 

"His appearance was most venerable. His 
thin locks were of almost snowy whiteness. He 
could only walk as supported by men on either 
side, but his figure was erect and most majestic, 
his stature fully six feet, and his whole frame 
of symmetrical proportions. His age at that 
time was said to be one hundred and twenty 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 17 

years, and his whole aspect went to confirm the 
report ; and yet his vision and hearing were 
unimpaired. After giving me a most cordial 
and paternal, or rather patriarchal greeting, 
which almost inspired me with awe, he was 
placed in an armchair and supported with cush- 
ions, himself resting his head upon the top of 
his staff. I was forcibly reminded of the patri- 
arch Jacob when blessing the sons of Joseph." 

An orator of marvelous powers was Chil-kil- 
leh, who "secured the confirmation of a treaty 
of peace between the Osages and the Cherokees 
when Governor Miller and the military power 
of the United States had failed." The power- 
ful chief of the Cherokees, Ta-ka-to-kuh of their 
ancient priesthood, was unyielding in his deci- 
sion that "there should be perpetual war with the 
Osages." Chil-kil-leh presented the decision 
for peace from the twelve Cherokees to the 
council in such magic eloquence and appealing 
pathos, that Ta-ka-to-kuh cast his vote, while 
the sun was sinking into an opalescent bed, as 
one for peace. 

Se-quo-yah, in 1826, invented an alphabet, 



18 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 



containing eighty-six characters of the Chero- 
kee language which was "said to be the most 
perfect alphabet ever constructed in any 
language." He translated the New Testament 
into Cherokee. 

As early as 1817, a military post, "two block 
houses and barracks," was located at an old 
French trading place. Belle Point, a high bluff 
overlooking the Arkansas and Poteau rivers. 
A year later, its name was changed to Fort 
Smith in honor of General Thomas A. Smith, 
commanding officer. This fort was rebuilt in 
1838-42, of stone, and of its buildings the old 
vine-sheltered commissary is the last. 

Of the famous men who knew this fort, with 
its stirring events of frontier days and its 
charming social circle, were : Stephen H. Long, 
Sam Houston, Albert Pike, Washington Irving 
and his hero. Captain Bonneville; Generals 
Zachary Taylor, Joseph E. Johnson, Mc- 
Clellan, Grant ; Stanley, the great explorer, and 
Catlin, the celebrated painter. 

Here romance came. While General Tay- 
lor was commanding, an attachment arose be- 



ARKANSAS 



A PICTURE 19 



tween Sarah, his daughter, and a young offi- 
cer, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis — later presi- 
dent of the Southern Confederacy — which led 
to their marriage in Kentucky soon afterwards. 
General Taylor had not become reconciled to 
this marriage, but at Buena Vista, after see- 
ing the fine heroism of Colonel Davis, at the 
head of his regiment, he, with heart over- 
flowing with gratitude, embraced him and said : 
"My daughter was a better judge of men than 
I am." 

Territorial Period 

On March 2, 1819, Congress created the Ter- 
ritory of Arkansas, effective July 4. The next 
day, March 3, General James Miller of New 
Hampshire, the hero of Lundy's Lane, was ap- 
pointed governor, and the gifted young Robert 
Crittenden of Kentucky secretary, by President 
Monroe. 

Over the territory at this time was scattered 
a population of fourteen thousand, and there 
were two postoffices, Davidsonville and Ark- 
ansas Post, to which mail was brought monthly 



20 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

along an old trail extending through from 
St. Louis to Monroe, Louisiana. 

The first Legislature convened July 28, 1819, 
at Arkansas Post. It was composed of Robert 
Crittenden, secretary, who presided as lieuten- 
ant-governor. Governor Miller not having ar- 
rived, and the three judges of the Superior 
Court of the Territory. This session estab- 
lished circuit courts and organized the offices 
of auditor and treasurer. 

The second Legislature passed the bill for 
the removal of the capital from Arkansas Post 
to Little Rock, effective June 1, 1821. This 
gave the capital a central position and a most 
healthful site, of picturesque beauty, overlook- 
ing the Arkansas river, for its future growth 
into a great commercial, railroad and social 
center. 

Of this location. Judge Daniel T. Witter, 
from St. Louis, Missouri, who located in Little 
Rock in May, 1820, wrote: "During the sum- 
mer" — 1820 — "Governor Miller, on his return 
from the Osage country, where he had been to 
hold a council with the Osages, accompanied by 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 21 

Colonel McRae and Major Archer, both of the 
United States army, spent a day or two with 
us, and was highly pleased with our town site, 
and pronounced it the unquestionable seat of 
government, not onl}^ for the present territory, 
but for the future State." 

The Arkansas Gazette, the first newspaper 
published in Arkansas and the only newspaper 
west of the Mississippi which has retained its 
name for a century, was established by Wil- 
liam E. Woodruff, at Arkansas Post, Novem- 
ber 20, 1819. Mr. Woodruff, born near Bell- 
port, Suffolk County, New York, December 
24, 1795, had journeyed down the Cumberland, 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers and arrived at the 
post on the last day of October, 1819 — with 
his printing press. 

This famous paper has published the state, 
national and world events for one hundred 
years, and borne into the homes of Arkansas 
from its earliest issues, the best literature. Its 
columns have contained writings fresh from 
the pens of Byron, Scott and Tennyson, our 
own Longfellow and Whittier, and announce- 



22 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

ments of new romances from Cooper, which 
immediately ran as serials in its pages. 

May The Arkansas Gazette continue a 
chronicler of our State's achievements — into 
future centuries. 

Along the rivers and trails during these early 
days was a second momentous passing over the 
western limits : a steady stream of settlers into 
Mexico. Stephen F. Austin, who, in 1820, in 
Little Rock, presided as judge over the sum- 
mer term of the Circuit Court, planted in 1821, 
along the Brazos, on land that had been granted 
his father. Colonel Moses Austin of Potosi, Mis- 
souri, by the viceroy at the City of Mexico and 
confirmed to him by the succeeding govern- 
ment, the first Anglo-Saxon colony in that part 
of Old Mexico that later became the State of 
Texas. 

Military roads were begun in 1826. The 
first, from Memphis to Little Rock, which in 
December 1827 was being traveled "the whole 
way," was continued through Fort Smith and 
Fort Towson connecting with New Orleans. 
This road and posts along the western border 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 23 

gave protection from the fierce Indians. A 
second United States road led from St. Louis 
through Little Rock to Washington, in Hemp- 
stead County. 

Wonderfully lucid is this portrayal of Hot 
Springs, from The Gazette files of August 7, 
1827: 

"We are indebted to the politeness of a friend 
who has recently visited them for the following 
description of the 'Hot Springs of Washuta': 
Among the various powers of the master hand 
of Nature that have claimed the attention of 
the learned or arrested the eye of the natu- 
ralist, this singular phenomenon deserves to hold 
a conspicuous station, whether regarded in a 
philosophical, mineralogical or medicinal point 
of view. It seems to have been formed in her 
most sportive mood, and in its kind is a perfect 
lusus natura, affording an extended field for 
ingenious theory and scientific speculation. 
This great natural curiosity is situated in the 
new Arkansas Territory, in lat. 34 deg., 30 
min. and 27 sec. North, according to Maj. 
Long's observation, and about 60 miles S. W. 



24 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

of town of Little Rock, the Territorial seat of 
Government. The salutary effect of the me- 
dicinal properties of the springs were long since 
known to the Spaniards, when the sovereignty 
of which Arkansas then formed a constituent 
part was subject to the Crown of Spain. At 
a period somewhat later, they were much fre- 
quented by the various Indian tribes ... in 
cases of Chronic Rheumatism. The wars which 
almost always existed between these tribes, were 
said to have opposed no barrier to such excur- 
sions, for by a humane compact (worthy of the 
admiration and imitation of a more civilized 
race) invalids were permitted to pass and re- 
pass, to and from the Springs, w^ithout hin- 
drance or molestation — such description of 
persons being easily recognized by the manner 
of wearing the hair, a manner common to all 
the tribes and conformed to by all candidates 
for the benefit of the bath. The Springs have 
been estimated to be 30 or 40 in number, and 
issue out of the side of a mountain about 300 
feet in height. They fall gradually into a 
branch of cold water that runs at the back of 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 25 

the mountain, which by this means becomes so 
much heated by the addition of spring water, 
as to present the very remarkable fact of a 
bold running spring of hot water. The tem- 
perature of the largest and hottest spring may 
be probably rated at 150 to 160 degrees Fah- 
renheit, and that of the smallest and coolest at 
about 120 or 130 degrees. The waters are 
chiefly beneficial in cases of Rheumatism, En- 
largement of the Spleen, and Affections of the 
Liver. About three miles from Hot Springs, 
there is a most delightful chalybeate spring, 
very strongly impregnated and so profuse that 
it is capable of discharging at least 30 gallons 
water per minute. ..." 

In 1807, the first cabin was built at Hot 
Springs; by 1812 a few visitors came; in 1828 
a family from Boston established a boarding 
house, and the following year many guests 
from different states arrived. The first bath- 
ing houses were built in 1830. Of those of the 
present time the Fordyce is one of the most 
palatial bathing houses in the world. By an 
Act of Congress in 1832, the four sections of 



26 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

land containing the springs were held "from 
private ownership by purchase, settlement or 
pre-emption." Later, the Hot Springs moun- 
tain, where nestle these priceless springs, was 
created the Hot Springs Reservation. These 
waters, exhaustless from Nature's hand, are 
the goal of visitors from over the world today 
and stand in their proven worth — the Hot 
Springs of Arkansas. 

The classic old State House at Little Rock 
bears this history: Through Ambrose H. Se- 
vier, Congress in 1831 granted ten sections of 
land to assist in erecting a state house. Gov- 
ernor Pope soon realized from the sale of this 
land $31,722.26. Into this fund, later, "was 
turned" the sale value from an additional grant 
of one thousand acres, and private subscrip- 
tions were also added to it. Governor Pope 
himself selected the beautiful site, and arranged 
the plans with the architect who had designed 
the capitol of Kentucky, and the State House 
was begun in March 1833. The first State 
Legislature convened within its walls Septem- 
ber 12, 1836; the stately trees on its grounds 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 27 

were planted 1839-40; the majestic figures, 
Law, Mercy and Justice, were reared above the 
dome when the building was being slightly re- 
modeled in 1885 ; the coat-of-arms from the 
Arkansas Centennial building, Philadelphia, 
was placed over the entrance, and the fountain 
from the Centennial erected on the grounds, in 
1877. "Lady Baxter," resting so peacefully 
here amidst creeping vines, is an old Confed- 
erate gun. 

Statehood 

As early as 1831, Mr. Sevier was making 
efforts to have the Territory admitted as a 
State. In 1835, Governor Fulton "in his mes- 
sage" to the Legislature, suggested that a com- 
mittee be called to form a constitution. This 
constitution, framed the following January, 
was presented before Congress by Mr. Sevier 
and in June 1836, Arkansas, with a population 
of 51,809, was admitted a State in the Ameri- 
can Union. 

When war was declared with Mexico, from 
Arkansas went "a full regiment of mounted 



28 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

gun men — as noble and gallant a band as ever 
drew the sword or bore arms in defense of their 
country." Busy were the scenes along the "old 
Southwest Trail," as this regiment gathered 
in rendezvous at Washington. Archibald Yell 
left Congress to come home and enter the regi- 
ment, enlisting as a private, but was chosen 
colonel of the regiment. In the battle of Buena 
Vista, February 23, 1847, during a charge by 
Mexican lancers. Colonel Yell and other heroes 
from Arkansas gave their lives. 

Of succeeding conflicts : 

During the Civil War, soldiers from Arkan- 
sas defended her own limits and fought on all 
the battlefields : Manassas to Lee's surrender at 
Appomattox; Corinth, Chickamauga, Mission- 
ary Ridge and all battles of Johnson's army 
to his surrender in North Carolina ; and at the 
siege of Vicksburg. 

One of the greatest generals of the entire 
Confederacy was Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, 
of Helena. Entering the Helena "Yell Rifles" 
as private he was promoted to be captain of 
this company, and rapidly advanced to the 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 29 

rank of brigadier-general and major-general. 
He defended Ringgold Gap an entire day, al- 
lowing General Bragg's army to pass into 
safety, for which Spartan bravery he received 
thanks from the Confederate Congress. Gen- 
eral Cleburne, "at the head of his men, waving 
his cap, cheering them on," fell in the hopeless 
battle of Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 
1864. His body was brought back to Helena, 
by the Ladies Memorial Association of that 
city, and a monument marks its sacred resting- 
place. 

President McKinley's call for volunteers at 
the beginning of the Spanish- American war was 
received at Little Rock April 25, 1898. In 
thirty days the quota, two thousand soldiers 
forming two regiments, was ready for duty. 

Of Arkansas' service in the recent World 
War, the following extracts from a summary 
by General Crowder, in The Arkansas Gazette, 
May 18, 1919, show: 

"In the matter of volunteers during the pe- 
riod of the first draft, Arkansas led all south- 
ern states in that she was the only southern 



30 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

state to exceed the national average ratio of 
enlistment credits to gross quota." 

"Arkansas on June 5, 1917, registered 149,- 
097 males between the ages of 21 and 30, 
inclusive, and was the fifth state in the Union 
to wire its complete returns to Washington." 

"On October 31, 1918, Arkansas was credited 
with 65,311 men in the Federal service. Of 
these 11,699 were volunteers in the army, 
4,025 volunteers in the navy, and 275 volun- 
teers in Marine Corps." 

How sustaining was Mother's face when her 
little bo}^ of yesterday hastened with the Stars 
and Stripes overseas ; how thoughtful was 
Father's. How precious the card: "Arrived 
safely," and his dispatched letters — how 
cheery ! 

Crowned with laurels, he comes home a hero 
— the greatest hero of time ! 

Camp Pike sprang into existence when our 
beloved country entered the World War and is 
now the demobilization point for eleven states. 

Eberts Field, the first aviation field in Ar- 
kansas, was established at Lonoke in the Au- 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 31 

tumn of 1918. Its champaign aviation field, 
with the unsurpassed atmospheric conditions 
of this State, is one of the best in the United 
States. 

Fort Logan H. Roots was established dur- 
ing Governor Fishback's administration, on a 
tract of one thousand acres at historic Big 
Rock that citizens of Little Rock ceded the 
government in exchange for the Arsenal 
grounds in Little Rock, which became a public 
park for all future time. This famous post 
during the Spanish- American war, was the cen- 
ter of brisk military activities and has given 
vigilant service to points west of the Mississippi 
and south to the Mexican border line for a 
quarter of a century. 

Camp Pike and Fort Logan H. Roots, for 
the entire period of the recent war, and Eberts 
Field, from its establishment, have won from 
the United States Public Health Service — 
highest health reports. 

Railroad development in Arkansas was begun 
in 1854, by surveys of the: Memphis and Little 
Rock, Little Rock and Fort Smith, and St. 



32 ABKANSAS A PICTUKE 

Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern lines. Of 
these, the Memphis and Little Rock road, built 
from Hopefield to Madison in 1858, and from 
Little Rock to De Vall's Bluff by 1861, was 
finished in 1868 — the first railroad in the 
State. 

In 1903, a State good roads association was 
created, which has greatly forwarded advance- 
ment. Now, wonderful highways through the 
enchanting Ozarks and prairie stretches of 
nodding blossoms, by placid lakes where water 
lilies float, by shaded mossy banks with spill- 
ing silver — tinkling — tinkling into dimpling 
springs, and along our riversides, are being 
built throughout the State. 

Of these highways, the Arkansas-Louisiana 
— the largest single highway undertaking in the 
United States — is now being built from Grady, 
where it connects with the gravel pike to Pine 
Bluff, down to McGehee, from which point two 
branches extend to the Louisiana line, one 
through Ashley County, the other through Chi- 
cot. A third branch passes from McGehee to 
Arkansas City. 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 33 

This road, fourteen feet wide, with brown 
asphalted surface, costing approximately 
$3,500,000, extends for one hundred and fifty- 
three miles through its district of six hundred 
and seventy-five thousand acres of the finest 
alluvium in the world. 

The official link of the Bankhead highway 
is now being constructed from Little Rock to 
Hot Springs, where it will connect with the 
Albert Pike highway to Denver, Colorado. 

Altogether, seven thousand miles of highways 
are being built or have been provided for within 
this State. 

The pride of Arkansas is her churches and 
her educational institutions — heralds of a 
country's worth. 

Catholic priests faithfully attended the 
Frenchmen and Spaniards at Arkansas Post; 
with the coming of the Anglo-Saxon, the cir- 
cuit rider entered; braving on horseback nar- 
row trails for hundreds of miles, to meet and 
teach his people. 

One of these saintly men, the Reverend John 
P. Carnahan, a Cumberland Presbyterian min- 



34 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

ister, preached the first Protestant sermon in 
Arkansas, at Arkansas Post, in 1811. In Oc- 
tober 1828, he organized the first Sabbath 
School in Washington County. Think how pa- 
tiently he labored during all these intervening 
years ! 

A valiant missionary was the Reverend Ce- 
phas Washburn, who left New England October 

1818, coming through the old Cherokee, Chick- 
asaw and Choctaw nations east of the Missis- 
sippi river to Pope County, where he estab- 
lished the Dwight Mission among the Cherokees. 

Mr. Washburn, having been "waited on" by 
a party of gentlemen, preached, on July 4, 

1819, the first sermon ever pronounced in Little 
Rock. 

Thus were established churches in the State! 

The thoroughness of Arkansas' school sys- 
tem is sustained by most efficient educators, 
and the State University is unsurpassed in 
the South. Four agricultural colleges located 
at Monticello, Jonesboro, Russellville and Mag- 
nolia were opened in 1910 and the young peo- 
ple of the state are enthusiastically profiting 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 35 

from the priceless scientific training they offer. 

From these colleges radiates an impress 
that is bringing to Arkansas — with its lus- 
cious strawberries, rosy-cheeked Elbertas, great 
black apples, acres of swelling wheat, 
extending fields of rice, rivers stocked with fish, 
yards of pure-bred chickens, ranges of pedi- 
greed hogs, vast stretches of grasses variegated 
by herds of blooded cattle, and its advance- 
ment, within the past six years, in the produc- 
tion of cotton from seventh to fifth place — 
great prosperity. 

The advancement of Arkansas from her first 
territorial day has been promoted by men of 
rare ability and worth. 

The brilliant Robert N. Crittenden, who, as 
lieutenant-governor at twenty-two years of age, 
organized the territorial government, was 
famed as a lawyer and an orator. As a young 
soldier he had won distinction in the War of 
1812, and had fought gallantly at Lundy's 
Lane. 

Of the noted Conway family, who came from 
Tennessee, Henry W. Conway, who had served 



36 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

under General Jackson at New Orleans, rep- 
resented the Territory in Congress with signal 
merit. James S. Conway was the great sur- 
veyor of those early days and the State's first 
Governor. A third brother, Elias N. Conway, 
rendered the State most efficient and valued 
service as auditor from 1835 to 1849, and 
later, as governor for eight years, advancing 
the building of levees and railroads and ad- 
justing banking affairs. 

Judge Benjamin Johnson, from Kentucky — 
one of five distinguished brothers — was the 
greatest jurist of Arkansas from 1821 to 1849. 
After the territory passed into statehood, he 
served as United States District Judge for the 
remainder of his life. 

Two other noted statesmen were Ambrose H. 
Sevier — of the Tennessee Seviers, who came 
to the Territory in 1821 and served in Con- 
gress twenty consecutive years, and Chester A. 
Ashley from Massachusetts, who arrived in 
1821, and soon became the most eminent lawyer, 
with a circuit the entire area of Arkansas. Of 
them Judge Witter wrote: "From 1844 to 1848 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 37 

our State was represented in the Senate of 
the United States by Ambrose H. Sevier and 
Chester Ashley. The former, Mr. Sevier, occu- 
pying the high position of chairman of the com- 
mittee on foreign relations, a position politi- 
cally next to that of the president ; and the lat- 
ter, Mr. Ashley, the distinguished position of 
chairman of the judiciary committee of the 
Senate, and each considered equal to any duty 
or emergency that might devolve upon them." 
Albert Pike, from Massachusetts, one of the 
most illustrious men of his time, came to Ar- 
kansas in 1833. He taught school near Van 
Buren; wrote for the Advocate, at Little Rock, 
and here mastered law; became the United 
States chief Indian attorney; urged railroad 
building; distinguished himself as captain in 
Colonel Yell's regiment in the Mexican war, 
and as brigadier-general in the Confederate 
service, commanding a brigade he had formed of 
Cherokee Indians. But he was greatest in the 
accomplishments of his kingly mind. His 
"Every Year," smites the chords of the heart 
with a master's hand. He composed several 



38 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

books on Roman law and wrested from the 
pages of the ancients truths for his beloved 
Masonry, ranking at the time of his death in 
Washington City in 1891, the highest Mason 
in the world. 

Augustus H. Garland, of the historic town 
of Washington in Hempstead County, which 
has given the State four supreme court judges, 
two governors and two United States senators, 
served his State as Governor, as United States 
Senator, and the United States from 1884 to 
1888 as attorney-general — thus representing 
Arkansas in the President's Cabinet. 

Judge U. M. Rose, a native of Kentucky, 
was, for over half a century, a famous lawyer 
and eloquent litterateur of Arkansas. He com- 
piled "Rose's Digest" — an invaluable work 
to the State; attained distinction in 1901 as 
president of the American Bar Association; 
and brilliant world renown in 1907, as an 
American Commissioner to the Hague Peace 
Tribunal. 

The natural wealth of the State consists of 
wonderful rivers and springs ; various fertile 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 39 

soils ; noble forests of many kinds of trees ; beds 
of copper, zinc, coal, bauxite, and slate ; differ- 
ent marbles, inexhaustible in quantity; a dia- 
mond mine yielding beautiful gems for finest 
polish; and pearls, from beneath the crystal 
waters of the White river, many of them com- 
manding the value of $10,000 each. 

This wealth is challenged by the natural 
beauty of Arkansas. 

Ascending Hot Springs mountain on a clear 
June morning, along winding trails that span 
ravines preserved in woody wildness, with 
their rims sheltering mosses and hanging ferns, 
and beds harboring rocks that have drifted 
down the steeps with passing years, we attain 
the glorious height above. Here, along the 
level, are rocks of various colorings, veinings 
and shapes, wonderful views into the waning 
far-off and the atmosphere pure and bracing. 

Across the State, along the Mississippi river 
where flows the Arkansas in historic majesty 
and, the White river with its twinkling field 
of converging steel and silver in mid-December, 
is a different scene: Great bared sycamores, 



40 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

with shining limbs towering above the dun 
shades of the forest; dark gaunt cypress 
trees, their canopies strung with brown trap- 
pings ; clusters of polished green holly trees, 
and red berried shrubs along the water courses 
— all of which make the prospect as far into 
the wilds as can be seen, one of entrancing love- 
liness. The train stops : Getting off, a party of 
sportsmen equipped for the treat in store. They 
follow the clean little footpath that awaits 
them at the train steps, down the steep em- 
bankment, steadily on to the doors of half- 
hidden tents over in the edge of the woods. 
Getting on, are huntsmen going home, some 
with live trophies — beautiful creatures ! 

Still another: Over the mirroring depths 
of famous Lake Chicot, in dogwood blossom 
time, are thousands of water fowls: swimming, 
skimming, circling — an expanse of swaying 
whiteness. 

It has been the pleasure of the State, to ex- 
tend hospitality to many distinguished guests. 

President Roosevelt, while traveling in the 
South, visited Little Rock by special invita- 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 41 

tion October 25, 1905. At the Scottish Rite 
Consistory, where a luncheon was served in 
his honor, the late Judge U. M. Rose, one of 
the speakers, in a peerless address of welcome 
said in part : "The occasion that has brought 
us together is not one of unmeaning compli- 
ments and of merely ceremonial display. The 
great and enthusiastic multitudes that fill our 
streets, our parks and other public places, 
with their hearty greetings, your present as- 
semblage, gentlemen, within this hall, the kindly 
words that have been spoken, will, we trust 
carry home to our honored guest the profound 
assurance that this homage is not paid ex- 
clusively to the President, but that it is no 
less a heartfelt tribute to the scholar, the 
writer, the soldier, the patriot and the states- 
man. ..." Mr. Roosevelt responded felici- 
tously, and afterwards recalled the genuineness 
of the welcomes given him on this occasion. 

Mr. Roosevelt made a second visit to Arkan- 
sas, attending the State Fair at Hot Springs, 
October 10, 1910. "Down two lines of Spanish 
war veterans, who stood at review, passed the 



42 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

colonel, bowing as he marched along. Simul- 
taneously a cannon boomed the first shot of the 
twenty-one which followed, forming the presi- 
dential salute." After "Dixie" was sung, "while 
our veterans in gray stood waving their hats, 
the colonel couldn't keep from applauding." 
In passing under the Liberty Bell to the front 
of the speaker's stand, Mr. Roosevelt was 
showered with American Beauty roses. 

In Little Rock have been entertained: Col- 
onel DaA^d Crockett and General Sam Houston 
passing on their way to Texas ; General Grant, 
President Harrison, President Taft, Admiral 
Winfield S. Schley; and, in 1910, the Conven- 
tion of the United Daughters of the Confed- 
eracy. 

In Hot Springs in 1918 assembled one of the 
most interesting conventions that ever met 
within the State: the War Service Biennial of 
the national body of women's clubs — so fit- 
tingly held on United States soil. 

With formal ceremonies, it opened at the 
Eastman Hotel on the evening of April 30. 
After the welcoming address and response, a 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 43 

brilliant pageant, symbolizing the United 
States and her Allies, preceded by the bugler 
from Camp Pike passed down the great hall to 
the reception which completed the evening's 
program. 

The Reports of State Presidents at Oak- 
lawn Auditorium, which was appropriately 
decorated with palmetto, festoons of gray 
moss, and the Stars and Stripes, showed the 
volume of work being accomplished by and 
through the clubs from sheer love of country: 
in doing more than was asked and in giving 
their beloved ones to the front. 

At the Art and Music Conferences the in- 
trinsic w^orth of these inspirations to our coun- 
try was dwelt on. 

In Home Economics Discussion were shown 
the nutritive value of foods, their combinations, 
and it was stated that the club women in con- 
serving food were the greatest power for win- 
ning the war. 

Child Welfare Work in Arkansas was com- 
mended, and in the review of clubs, Arkansas 
held the highest number of new clubs — forty- 
five. 



44 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

During this convention there were exhibited 
at Oaklawn Auditorium reproductions from 
the canvases of old masters — rare studies ; 
also an arraj^ of Arkansas pottery made at 
Benton, so exquisite in its winding streakings 
of nature's gray-blue, green, pink, yellow and 
brown tones that it rivals pottery fashioned 
in an^^ age. 

Art and literature were early inspired by 
the ennobling beauty of this State. 

William Byrd, in the forties, made some rare 
canvases — treasures to those that possess 
them. The splendid portraits in the State 
House, of Honorable Henry W. Conway and 
Governors James S. Conway and Elias Con- 
way, are from his brush. Others adorn the 
walls of homes in the State. 

Edward Payson Washburn, a young native 
artist, caught the spirit of a merry, fun-loving 
recital, as he heard it, by Colonel Sandy Faulk- 
ner, and from it created his famous picture, 
"The Arkansaw Traveler." 

Our gifted painters of the present time have 
won honors from art centers of the United 
States and Europe. 



ARKANSAS A PICTURE 45 

Able prose and beautiful poetry are being 
written by cultured men and women, and the 
libraries of Arkansas show a wealth of na- 
tive literature. 

George B. Rose of Little Rock, author of 
"Renaissance Masters," valued wherever art 
is loved, and Fay Hempstead of Little Rock, 
crowned "Poet Laureate of Free Masonry" in 
Chicago in 1908 — a distinction held by only 
two other poets, Robert Burns of "Scotia's 
realm" and Robert Morris of Kentucky — have 
attained international fame. 

A very happy occasion was the presentation, 
through a special commission, appointed by 
Governor Brough — Arkansas' distinguished 
World War governor — in New York City, 
April 22, 1919, of a magnificent silver ser- 
vice from the State to the great battleship 
Arkansas. Accompanying this service, were a 
silver loving cup from the Arkansaw Travelers, 
and a silver trophy cup, the gift of the Daugh- 
ters of the American Revolution. 

In 1819, on the 27th of March, Mr. Thomas 
Nuttall of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 



46 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 

exploring the Arkansas river, wrote: "No 
village or town except Arkansas has yet been 
produced on the banks of the river." During 
1819 the first camp was pitched among the 
pines where the city of Pine Bluff now stands, 
and in the autumn of 1819 a house, "partly 
built of cypress slabs," was erected "near 
the Point of Rocks just west of the Qua- 
paw line." This point now commands the 
grand Union Station, the gate into the Great 
Southwest, and, high upon the crest of a noble 
hill, the State Capitol, with its polished beauty 
of Batesville marble — the glory of the Com- 
monwealth. 

Arkansas ! with your illustrious past in its 
unique setting, your buoyant present with its 
glorious deeds, you have now attained one 
hundred years of organized existence, and enter 
a bright new century. 

We love you, Arkansas — we love you, and 
on your queenly brow we place a wreath of 
Little Rock's own famed roses. 

July 4, 1919. 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

^T^HE map of Arkansas shows her abundance 
of river ways — nature's trails which man 
always appropriates. These flowing into the 
Mississippi gave superior advantages toward 
the colonization of the lands they watered. 

Hempstead County, which on December 15, 
1918, attained the first centennial of the State, 
attracted her early pioneers, chiefly up the 
Red river — meandering in its wealth — on 
keel and flat boats. 

The picturesque Ouachita river shared hon- 
ors with Red river in settling this part of the 
Territory, Camden and Arkadelphia being early 
built on its banks and interesting towns have 
sprung up along the rippling Saline river and 
dreamy Bayou Bartholomew forwarding this 
attractive section — Southeast Arkansas. 

Numerous pioneers ascended the broad bosom 
of the Arkansas river — with its boundaries of 
building wealth — founding Pine Bluff, Little 
47 



48 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

Rock, Morrilton, Dardanelle, Ozark, Van Buren 
and Fort Smith. 

Along the White river — with its scenic 
banks and deep flowing waters — were settled 
Clarendon, De Vall's Bluff, Des Arc, Augusta, 
Newport and Batesville. 

Families early planted homes on the inviting 
lands of the winding St. Francis. 

Helena, about 1820, was confirmed on the 
Mississippi near the mouth of the St. Francis 
river, cabins having been there in 1800. 

In 1819, when the Territory was organized, 
a road led from Arkansas Post to Little Rock, 
a second, from Benton to Hot Springs, and an 
old trail passed down from St. Louis through 
Arkansas Post to Monroe, Louisiana, thence 
to New Orleans, over which coursed the first 
mail line of the Territory. To this old trail 
attaches true dignity : it was the principal way 
traveled during all the years of the French and 
Spanish occupancy of Louisiana and it faith- 
fully served our government in pioneer days. 

These early ways were Indian trails. Two 
other Indian trails passed from Luna Landing : 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 49 

one, up through Pine Bluff to Little Rock, the 
other westward to Camden and on through 
Washington to Fort Towson. 

Another, an old Chickasaw trail, led from 
opposite the bluffs of Memphis northwestward 
to the White river, along which it coursed 
thence passed through Fayetteville to Fort 
Smith. 

Trails ! Trails ! From all directions these 
guided to the healing fountains of Hot 
Springs. Along them in regular file tracked 
the aged Indians — can we not picture them, 
with thin locks, seamed faces and feet rough- 
ened by exposure to the winds and snows of 
winter, as they tottered to these waters that 
their pains might be assuaged? The Spanish 
cavaliers, even from Old Mexico, trailed to 
these warm springs, and the French of Louis- 
iana knew the ways to them well. 

Interesting are these records of military 
roads : 

^'The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
Tuesday, April 18, 1826. 

"Little Rock and Memphis Road — The 



50 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

Jackson, Tenn., Gazette of the 25th ult. con- 
tained the following paragraph: 'We under- 
stand that Lieut. Griffin has commenced opera- 
tions in regard to making contracts for cutting 
out the road from Memphis to Little Rock.' " 

"T/i^ Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1827. 

"Such, we understand, is the situation for 
the new route that it can now be traveled by 
horsemen the whole distance; and there have 
been several instances within a few weeks past 
of wagons passing through from Memphis, one 
of which arrived here a few days ago." 

We note this road was continued. 

^^The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
Tuesday, July 3, 1827. 

"Lieut. James L. Dawson arrived here a 
few days ago . . . for the purpose of entering 
into contract for opening the U. S. Road from 
this place to Fort Smith." 

^^The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
Tuesday, Aug. 21, 1827. 

"Lieut. Dawson, we understand, will imme- 
diately proceed to survey and mark the route 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 51 

for the U. S. Road from Fort Smith on the 
Arkansas to Fort Towson on Red river. ..." 

Quoting further, from last above issue: 
"An officer from Camp Jesup (Louisiana), 
we are informed, was sometime since engaged in 
surveying the route for the U. S. Road from 
Fort Towson via Washington to the northern 
boundary of Louisiana and thence to Natchi- 
toches. . . . Length of above roads may be 
estimated as follows : 

Memphis to Little Rock — 136 mi. 
Little Rock to Fort Smith — 152 mi. 



Fort Smith to Fort Towson — 190 mi. 

Fort Towson to Natchitoches — 320 mi." 

Total length — 798 miles. 

From 1829 to 1832, a military road that 
came from St. Louis was being built through 
the State, over the Southwest Indian trail, pass- 
ing near Hix's Ferry on the Current river, 
Arkansas, across the White river near Bates- 
ville to Little Rock, thence continuing to Wash- 
ington and to Red river at Fulton. 



52 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

With military roads and regular mail service, 
the Territory now attracted settlers in num- 
bers, principally from Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Virginia. Even from far away Massachu- 
setts they came, and from our sister state, 
Missouri. 

The immigration through Memphis into the 
Territory over the military road in December 
1828, was so great that wagons at that ferry 
were detained for days, before being trans- 
ferred. 

Stage service was established over the mili- 
tary road between Memphis and Little Rock 
in May 1833. Imagine! the prancing horses 
that relieved the tired ones. 

In 1807, was cut out from Cadron on the 
Arkansas river — the first road in Arkansas. 
It extended fifty miles eastward to the Watten- 
saw bayou. 

Several pioneer families from West Tennes- 
see, bringing with them their slaves, came down 
from Memphis on the steamer "Autocrat" to 
Gaines' Landing on the Mississippi river. From 
this point, they cut a way through heavy cane- 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 53 

brakes and woods, moving, in a carryall and 
wagons, a short distance daily, until they 
reached a high point in Drew County, our 
present historic "Rough and Ready" hill — 
the first site of Monticello. 

These two old wagon trails and similar trails 
over the State that were cut out by the settlers 
from river towns — some following trails made 
by horsemen dragging cowhides through the 
wilderness — often leading over streams and 
bayous on primitive ferryboats to the beckon- 
ing lands of the interior — are always con- 
templated with pride. 

In this new realm the settler, near a spring^^ 
reared his castle. Here the mother crooned her 
baby into dreamland; the cat purred softly on 
its selected spot ; the dog circled its master's 
domain in proprietary joy as the wild animals 
retreated into denser woods ; and the gentle 
cow found juicy grasses to her liking. 

Of our national routes is the old King's High- 
way, with its deep wide bed, of early Colonial 
days, between Mt. Vernon and Alexandria, 
traveled for so many years by Washington. 



54 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

Another Colonial road is the Quakertown and 
Sellersville turnpike in Pennsylvania, to pass 
over which one still pays a toll. Along this 
way in Revolutionary days while the British 
occupied Philadelphia the Liberty Bell was hur- 
ried and hid in a church of Allentown. 

Soon after the French and Indian war, many 
along the Atlantic began to think of homes be- 
yond the Alleghanies. Three mountain trails 
lured them to their goal : The beautiful Cum- 
berland Gap trail, leading into the blue grass 
area of Kentucky ; a second, winding along the 
French Broad river into the valleys of East 
Tennessee, and "Braddock's Road" from Phil- 
adelphia to Pittsburgh. 

The National Road — which Washington 
had suggested — was built in 1818 from Cum- 
berland to the Ohio river at Wheeling, West 
Virginia, and continued later to Vandalia, Il- 
linois. From this point two branches in 1840 
reached Jefferson City, Missouri, one through 
St. Louis, the other through Alton. This great 
highway, with daily stage coaches for travelers 
and mail coaches going forward every hour, 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 55 

ushered wonderful advancement into the broad 
valley of the Mississippi. 

The Natchez Trace, a celebrated southern 
stage route, was laid out by General Andrew 
Jackson over an old Indian trail that led from 
the site of Nashville, Tennessee, to where Nat- 
chez, Mississippi, now is. Down this way 
passed soldiers to New Orleans in 1812. 

The Erie Canal — an achievement completed 
by the State of New York in 1825 — gave a di- 
rect way into the West from the Middle and 
New England states and developed the rich 
country around the Great Lakes. 

West of the Mississippi the Clarke and Lewis 
Expedition went up the Missouri and Jefferson 
rivers and trailed across the mountains to 
streams which they followed down to the Pa- 
cific ocean; and two years later, 1806, Lieu- 
tenant Zebulun Pike, ascending the Missouri 
and Osage rivers, and passing over trails, at- 
tained the Rocky Mountains and discovered the 
noble peak that perpetuates his name. From 
the latter party was dispatched Lieutenant 
James B. Wilkinson to explore the Arkansas 



56 OLD TRAILS AND EOADS 

river. He, with others, descended in "two ca- 
noes made of skins" to lone Arkansas Post, 
noting along the upper waters buffaloes "in 
droves of tens of thousands," — which shows 
the Indians' care of game. 

These coursings were the initial steps by the 
United States towards settling Louisiana, and 
gradually white-topped wagons threaded three 
ways into the alluring be^^ond : the Oregon trail, 
following the Missouri and Platte rivers into 
Oregon at South Pass, and a trail extending 
from the site of Kansas City seven hundred 
miles to Santa Fe, where a third trail, the Cal- 
ifornia, branched from it. 

Emigrants hurrying overland to California 
after the discovery of gold, passed up the Mis- 
souri river, thence along the Oregon trail into 
a trail that led to California. 

Our trails and our rivers carried the Anglo- 
Saxon, in one hundred years, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, and here the blue smoke curled 
upward from his home. 

The first white settlement in the trans- 
Missouri river country north of the Kaw river, 



OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 57 

Fort Atkinson, was built in September, 1819, 
by United States soldiers who "in a small steam- 
boat" had trailed up river. 

Distinctive are the old cattle-trails of Texas 
and Oklahoma over which vast herds of cattle 
were carefully driven by the picturesque cow- 
boys to St. Louis and Kansas City to market. 
Sometimes an entire season was required to 
make one trip. 

An old road in Arizona which hugs the can- 
yon walls used to connect by army teams two 
posts : Fort Reno in Tonto Basin with Fort 
McDowell on the Verde river — thirty miles 
away. Amidst the adobe ruins of the latter 
fort, hidden in chaparral still bubbles its arte- 
sian well. 

Over the woody ways we find delight and in- 
struction : "From out the depths of the forest" 
John Burroughs heard "the finest sound in 
nature — the song of the hermit-thrush . . . 
rising pure and serene as if a spirit from some 
remote height were slowly chanting a divine 
accompaniment." The geologist with hammer 
in his hand and dog running by his side, in- 



58 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 

tently tracks deep into the pathless wilds, that 
Nature will unveil to him her primary laws. 

Our old trails and roads are almost any- 
where, their banks often hidden by creeping 
vines and the swinging yellow jasmine with its 
cloying sweetness. We cherish them as golden 
links from our earliest days to those of the 
present time. 

February 11, 1919. 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

/^NE morning last summer, I left home to 
^^ visit our national capital and surround- 
ing historic points — a pleasure long antici- 
pated. 

Passed this day through rich alluvial land 
bordering the Arkansas river — where the 
beautiful long-stapled cotton grows. Pine 
Bluff, the chief city of this section, is one of the 
first cotton markets in the South. 

When crossing the bridge at Little Rock, a 
sunset of rare loveliness enchained me. The 
sun, a great orb of gold, its circle perfectly 
outlined, was suspended in siftings of silver, 
while low over the horizon stretched the faint- 
est sea-shell tints. Below, the river, its Ar- 
genta bank rimmed with yellow sand dotted here 
and there with green water-grass, wound sleep- 
ily in its July bed. To the left and rear, form- 
ing a background, stood the Heights of Pulaski. 
59 



60 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

Early next morning, I journeyed through 
modern Missouri towns, noting their attractive 
streets. 

In a short while, Jefferson Barracks came 
into view, with rolling grounds of soft green, 
and here our soldier-boys were grouped in the 
fresh air ready for a new day. 

Arriving in St. Louis an hour late, I has- 
tened in transferring into the Baltimore and 
Ohio train. 

Spent a most interesting day in Illinois, In- 
diana, and Ohio — very similar, with great 
undulating landscapes of well-cultivated farms. 
The comfortable-looking farmhouses are often 
close together, showing the country to be 
thickly settled. All day were seen stacks of 
golden hay, wheat and oats; acres of corn of 
richest dark color ; cowpeas, Irish potatoes, and 
tomatoes. The loveliest areas of clover in solid 
sheets of bloom — like gayly flowered carpets. 
Fine horses and cattle browsed in green pas- 
tures. Chickens, so many chickens ! A beau- 
tiful collection ranged over an extensive apple 
orchard. In Indiana, boys were swimming and 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 61 

frolicking in a large lake. I thought of "The 
Old Swimmin'-Hole." Noted the Wabash and 
White rivers. The latter — along whose fo- 
liaged bank paddled a single boatman in a little 
red craft — is the deepest river east of the 
Mississippi. One pier of a bridge over this 
river, with its channel of solid rock, rests on 
bed rock sixty-five feet beneath the surface of 
the water. 

This afternoon, a quick downpour of rain? 
In a few minutes, the freshets were dashing and 
rippling, and the little green plots at stations, 
gorgeously decked with crimson geraniums, 
verbenas, and spotted petunias, were refreshed 
and more vivid in their loveliness. 

Our train reached Cincinnati at sunset. The 
Ohio, immediately on the right and below, fed 
by springs in the adjacent high mountains, 
looked angry — even at this time. It was 
easy to imagine its mood during the spring 
season, from the numerous wrecks that were 
strown along its bank. Across, a height, with 
carefully cultivated plots on its side, rose sheer 
from the river's brim, while high upon the left 



62 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

glimmered thousands of lights in the residential 
section of this city. 

The next morning, while crashing through 
tunnels — there being twenty-four along this 
line — we were ascending the Alleghanies, 
the scenery of which over this route is famous ! 

The fog, far down, veiled the streams, with 
their water-smoothed rocks. I watched an 
hour without seeing its faintest movement. How 
cold the morning was ! I shivered, and intently 
watched again. A slight breaking of fog, as 
it felt more and more the sun's vibrations. 

At breakfast, I looked out over a deep gulch 
and saw, far ahead round the curve of the 
mountain, two engines — - seemingly endowed 
with life — bravely and steadfastly conveying 
us to our destination. 

Extremely interesting were the views of a West 
"Virginia town, a coal center, where freighted 
cars stood awaiting shipment. Here the moun- 
tains are rich with coal, many of them perfect 
honeycombs from the great amount of mining 
being done. A number of residences of this 
picturesque little city nestle serenely on a 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 63 

mountain-side, near the crest of which to 
the left stood a group of tall derricks. 

At station Terra Alton a level of twenty 
miles begins, and on the summit is Altamont, 
two thousand seven hundred and twenty feet 
above the sea. 

On this way, among the great sweeps of 
mountains with beautiful trees shading its wind- 
ing driveways and sylvan nooks, was seen Deer 
Park Hotel — two hundred miles from Wash- 
ington City. This hotel is owned by the Bal- 
timore and Ohio Railroad, and bears the dis- 
tinction of having entertained President Cleve- 
land during his honeymoon. 

After the descent, seventeen miles of which 
fall at the rate of one hundred and seventeen 
feet each mile, we reached Piedmont, with an al- 
titude of nine hundred and thirty-three feet, 
likewise the Potomac — our own Potomac — 
which tumbled and splashed over rocky ledges, 
about eighteen inches high, then rushed among 
the many rocks that line its bed, forming an 
expanse of silvery whirls that sparkled and 
tossed into the greater depths below. 



64 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

At Harper's Ferry — wildly beautiful in its 
situation — the nearer bank of the Potomac 
shows weathered masonry of an old landing, 
while the opposite one ascends — a rocky steep 
with shrubs trailing from its side. 

During this afternoon I was persistently con- 
scious of the Potomac — "a thing of beauty" 
— as it wound near with brown cobblestones 
heaped along its sandy rim to waters' brink; 
then swept far away — only to come back 
again. 

As the shadows were lengthening over the 
Virginia hills faces assumed expectancy and 
alertness. I was arriving in Washington City. 

My first impressions from Pennsylvania 
Avenue were of whiteness and of spaciousness. 
The Capitol stood magnificent in size and noble 
in architecture in the softness of the evening 
hour. 

How at home I felt ! The very atmosphere 
seemed permeated with the spirit of welcome. 

So many soldiers ! Groups of officers in mar- 
tial attire — those of the navy wearing white 
linen. French officers in their blue uniforms, 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 65 

and a Canadian officer in the khaki of Canada. 
Our glorious young soldiers ! looking straightly 
forward — so eager for service at the front. 

"Visiting the Capitol first, we entered the Ro- 
tunda — an imposing circular hall. Oil paint- 
ings, showing our historic events, are around 
its walls, and above, on the canopy, is painted 
the "Apotheosis of Washington," in which he 
presides in majesty, with Freedom and Victory 
at his sides, and aerial figures representing the 
Thirteen States floating near. 

Fortunately, the Senate was in session that 
noon; so our guide conducted us into the Sen- 
ate Chamber first, where we listened fifteen min- 
utes to an interesting discussion of the draft 
age by Senators Kirby of Arkansas and Rob- 
inson of Wisconsin. This chamber is command- 
ing in size, elegant in coloring and finish. Mar- 
ble busts of Vice-Presidents adorn its galleries. 

The National Statuary Hall is most impres- 
sive with statues in bronze or marble, contrib- 
uted by the states, of their past illustrious cit- 
izens. Among these statues : General Washing- 
ton in his military uniform ; General Robert E. 



66 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

Lee in the attire of the Confederacy ; Judge U. 
M. Rose, once president of the American Bar 
Association, and envoy to the second Hague 
Peace Conference ; and one woman — Frances 
Elizabeth Willard. 

To this room, we yield our tender interest, 
since it was the old Hall of Representatives, in 
which were heard the pure eloquence of Daniel 
Webster, the gladiatorial shafts of John Quincy 
Adams, the magnetic flashes of Henry Clay, 
and the words of many others during that "age 
of oratory." 

I greatly admired oil portraits in one of these 
corridors of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, 
Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. 

The Library of Congress, which we visited 
next, is often pronounced "the most beautiful 
building in the world" — its architecture, 
Italian Renaissance. Through its classic por- 
tal and great entrance hall of polished white, 
we passed up the stairway to the Visitors' Gal- 
lery. From this point, the Rotunda Reading 
Room is best seen. Its deep rich color effects, 
which are indescribably mellow ,and lovely — 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 67 

a mingling of red, yellow and brown tones with 
old ivory above in the dome — are enhanced 
by the light through splendid stained glass 
windows. Upon the piers around this gallery 
are eight great statues — female figures — 
representing Art, History, Religion, Commerce, 
Poetry, Philosophy, Law, and Science. 

Near the entrance to this library, is its 
Bronze Fountain — a perfect translation of 
classic fancy — with sea nymphs, sea horses, 
turtles, serpents, and frogs. 

From amidst the thousands of exhibits in the 
National Museum, I listed an exquisite vase 
of dull silver, "Replica of the Bryant vase pre- 
sented the poet on his eightieth birthday . . . 
its decorations symbolizing Bryant's treatment 
of nature" ; a bronze cannon, "made in France 
in 1750, brought over by Lafayette in 1777, 
and used by allied French and Continental 
Forces in our Revolution"; and, the "original 
flag" that as it floated over Fort McHenry in- 
spired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star 
Spangled Banner." 

The Pan-American Union building repre- 



68 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

sents good fellowship between twenty-one Amer- 
ican republics, of which the United States is 
one. It has been said, the conception of this 
building originated with James G. Blaine. 

On the exterior, high above, are figures — 
the eagle of North America, and the condor of 
South America. 

Immediately within is a "patio" — very 
Latin- American it looks — with a sculptured 
fountain in the center, designed by Mrs. Harry 
Paj^ne Whitney {nee Gertrude Vanderbilt). 
Many tropical plants are around this "patio," 
one, a coffee tree, thickly leaved in beautiful 
fresh green. 

In the Corridor of National Standards, are 
suspended the flags of these nations and a grand 
display they make ! Emerson would say : "Not 
for nothing they hang here." 

We were shown the Hall of the Americas — 
a very noble auditorium representing American 
talent — with information that it is considered 
the largest of its style in the United States. 

Next, the Governing Board Room, where en- 
voys from these republics assemble once a 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 69 

month around a superb oval table — their 
"Round Table" — elegantly carved of ma- 
hogany from Dominica. 

In the rear of this building is an "Aztec Gar- 
den," with deep pool fringed with swaying 
plants; presiding over it at its extreme limit, 
is a figure cast from the "Sad Indian." 

The monument to the life of Washington is 
fascinating in its grandeur of height, its great 
strength, its sheer beauty. From its windows, 
the Capitol, the White House with its fountains 
and leafy lawns, and Arlington were wonderful 
to the view. When looking below, a pool seemed 
a cloudy emerald setting. I walked down and 
read the inscriptions. 

En route to Arlington we passed the White 
House, beautiful and half-secluded by fine 
hedges — California Privet — which line its 
iron fence, and noble trees. An ideal home 
for our presidents. The French Legation came 
into view, its ensign above and carefully grown 
green hedges in front ; and soon the wonderful 
National Zoological Park was before us through 
which we strolled, surveying our native animals 



70 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

gathered from the different states. Here, in 
the pond were ducks and geese — the great 
gray honker, the California wavy, the cackling 
goose, mallard, pintail, teal and others, and 
high up on his perch an American eagle from 
Oklahoma — proudly stretched his royal wings. 
Farther on, our guide noted the old Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal and that its first ground was 
broken by President John Quincy Adams, July 
4, 1828. Its quaint little tow-boats are still 
in use. 

As we drove along the shaded avenue at Ar- 
lington, the sacredness of these noble grounds, 
sweeping away from their plateau, was felt 
at once. 

We were ushered into the former drawing- 
room of the Mansion, where we registered. In 
this room, General Robert E. Lee was married 
to the great-granddaughter of Martha Wash- 
ington. 

From this noted portico, copied after that of 
the Parthenon, the views are especially inter- 
esting to tourists. Around are groups of old 
magnolia trees — at top of one, a pure white 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 71 

bud was bursting into fragrance — and shapely 
evergreen shrubs. To the front, are numerous 
ornamental trees, growing in the valley that 
dips immediately below. Over their symmetri- 
cal tops are seen the Potomac — a silvery 
course — along its side the old Canal. Com- 
pleting this vista are hills that melt into the 
distance. From the side of this portico, the 
Washington Monument shows majestic, its lines 
were clear-cut against the gray heavens and 
through the drifting pearl of that somber after- 
noon. 

The women of the South have recently 
erected here, through the United Daughters of 
the Confederacy, a monument to their cherished 
loved ones. 

Beautiful Arlington ! 

When nearing Mt. Vernon by steamer, Wash- 
ington's home, standing aloft, came into view, 
with its handsome grounds falling gracefully to 
the Potomac — the river Washington loved — 
which guards this shrine caressingly for all 
time. 

Sacred feelings surged over me! 



72 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

At the quay, we were met by two pretty little 
trails, leading up — one to the Tomb and the 
other to the Mansion. 

The Tomb, of brick, is stately with vines — 
the Wistaria and English Ivy — forming a 
beautiful bower over its arched gateway. With- 
in the front was a large wreath of leaves, its 
card inscribed: 

"To the Soul of the American Nation. 
WooDROw Wilson." 

The prospect from the broad porch of this 
hallowed home is of arresting loveliness — 
hours could be spent in its contemplation. 

Within the spacious hall, where scenes of 
other da3^s floated before me, are three of Wash- 
ington's swords, and the great iron key — 
seven inches long — of the Bastile, sent as a 
"trophy of the spoils of despotism" to Wash- 
ington by Lafayette. 

I also noted: Washington's room, his bed, a 
great chair that was his mother's, a picture of 
Sulgrave Manor — the home of the Washing- 
tons in England, the old bibles of the fam- 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 73 

ily; the room Lafayette occupied when visiting 
here, a chair from his birthplace — the Chateau 
de Chavagniac ; and a most interesting old pow- 
derhorn used at Concord by "The Minute 
Men." In the kitchen, the huge fireplace with 
its hanging crane points loyally to the past. 

In the rear of the Mansion is a vast lawn 
which was smooth green. On its sides are 
noble trees, ash, tulip-poplar and the delicately 
fragrant emerald-green spruce that Washing- 
ton planted himself. When one of these trees 
was partially riven by a storm, two and a half 
tons of cement were used in restoring it. 

In the Flower Garden on the right of this 
lawn are wonderful hedges of English box that 
were planted by Washington "before he went 
to the Revolution." I marveled at their great 
age, when the gardener — who was carefully 
washing the fine leaves of lemon bushes with soft 
cloths that he dipped into foamy water — 
further astonished me by adding: "In England, 
they live five and six hundred years"! These 
calicanthus shrubs were presented Washing- 
ton by Thomas Jefferson from his own garden 



74 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

at Monticello. Over the hedges were beds of 
radiant flowers — the blue larkspur among 
them — whose indescribable sweetness lingers 
with me still. 

We returned that afternoon by electric train 
over a route rich in historical points of in- 
terest from our earliest days. Among them 
the site of the Indian village Assaomeck, where 
Captain John Smith treated with a Powhatan 
tribe of Indians in 1607; old Broad Creek 
Church — of the early settlement, Piscataway 
— which was built in 1694; and the old York- 
town road, over which Washington passed with 
Jiis army going to Yorktown in 1781. 

Stopping at Alexandria, the British metropo- 
lis in Colonial days, we went first to Christ 
Church, where Washington worshiped and 
where he served as vestryman. When enter- 
ing its open portal, I glanced down the broad 
brick driveway and pictured the coaches and 
four with outriders that had passed over it. 
This is a quaint old English church, built in 
1773. The high pulpit with sounding board, 
communion table and font standing in the chan- 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 75 

eel, are preserved as in Washington's time. On 
the back of Washington's pew is a silver plate 
with his autograph engraved upon it ; across the 
aisle is a pew with a similar plate bearing the 
autograph, "Robt. E. Lee." At each side of the 
pulpit is a memorial with Masonic emblem : one, 
inscribed to George Washington, the other, 
Robert Edward Lee. This church treasures 
many relics of early days. Among them: its 
first Bible, printed at Edinburgh, and its first 
collection plate, sent by the Queen of England. 
That only seventeen ministers have served here 
is this church's pride and their photographs 
were shown us. 

Tradition states that Washington passed 
out after service one Sabbath morning — we 
were shown the exact spot on which he stood — 
discussing conditions of the King's rule, when 
he declared : "I will stand by my colonies !" This 
assertion resulted in our powerful American 
nation which is leading the world into freedom 
today. 

Next in interest at Alexandria is the old Car- 
lyle House, dating from 1752. Here, General 



76 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

Braddock established headquarters before pro- 
ceeding to Fort Duquesne. 

After four days in Washington, I left at 
9.30 P. M. for Chattanooga, arriving at dusk 
the following evening. 

The next forenoon, had an interesting drive 
over Chickamauga Park. Troops of cavalry 
cantering by with battle-axes at sides, forcibly 
depicted the service to which they were soon 
going. Recruits, in great numbers, were ar- 
riving, ready for training. On these peaceful 
extents was fought one of the greatest battles 
of the Civil War. We were shown, by our 
guide, where the battle-lines had been drawn 
up for three days, extending two miles and a 
half, and trees that had been pierced by can- 
non balls. 

That afternoon, I circled up Lookout Moun- 
tain glimpsing several cottages snugly en- 
sconsed against its precipitant sides. On its 
level are pretty bungalows, and it is a pleas- 
ant home the entire year, since the atmosphere 
is so dry. 

Over a well-beaten path thrgugh primeval 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 77 

forest, I passed to the Balancing Rock — a 
wonder! Its equipoise, a marvel of nature's 
laws, its rasping brown surface, flecked with 
mossed green, portrays antiquity. Little chil- 
dren played around it lovingly. Far-off from 
side to side, were seen the locations of seven 
States. Far below spread in panorama the 
beautiful city of Chattanooga ; the subtle Ten- 
nessee river writhing tortuously; the creeping 
train cleaving to Mother Earth, its coaches 
the size of domino blocks — all bathed in the 
soft golden haze of that passing afternoon. 

I stood watching the cable-car — a mere 
speck at first — as it slowly ascended ; and at 
one place, where its bed curves inwardly, it is 
entirely lost to sight. My descent was in- 
tensely interesting and novel from its sharp 
declivity and proximity to the rugged juts of 
ledges on either side. 

Early next morning, I continued my journey, 
leaving Chattanooga for Memphis, and later, 
came from there to Greenville, passing through 
great black delta plantations of Mississippi, 
whose prospects were being sprinkled with new 



78 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 

whiteness. I noted thirty-nine fine mules frisk- 
ing in one pasture, and near them, numerous 
lively little pigs. 

Here, Nature is lavish with the game she 
ojffers and famous sport is had by hunting 
parties at certain seasons of the year. 

The train stopped that noon on a bridge over 
a creek. Glancing down, I was astonished to 
see turtles of all sizes — the translucent water 
literally filled with them. Many were rising 
slowly, sidelong, by one front foot, suspending 
themselves at the surface to bask in the warm 
sunshine. I counted nine, of uniform size, sit- 
ting only a few inches above water on an old 
log with backs toward us. Finally it trans- 
pired to them that their serenity was being en- 
croached upon. From their slight jostling 
movements, I surmise, they counseled together, 
then, without looking around, they plunged 
into the water, the one on the left going first, 
the others following in succession. I wonder 
if the left one were their leader ! 

Next midday, I crossed the Mississippi river 
— a drowsy monarch — always grand, always 



MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 79 

awe-inspiring for Arkansas, my home. The 
once great floating-palaces of this river have 
passed with the trend of the times. Now, barge 
lines are being utilized to serve this spreading 
wealth from St. Louis to New Orleans. Across 
a wide shoal, two white birds with extremely 
long legs — a species of crane — stalked ma- 
jestically down into the water, where they stood 
watching our boat with mild intent, merely 
turning their heads to keep us in view; and as 
far as I could see them, they stood thus — si- 
lent sentinels. 

Washington City is the beautiful symbol of 
our national life to which we yearn for a closer 
communion ; so this visit is the first pilgrimage 
of an American. 

November 5, 1918. 



THE END. 



